FED:Northern gold production down in Q211

Goldminer
Northern Star Resources
says its production fell in the December quarter after a fire on site and a state-wide shortage of liquid oxygen.

Northern Star says it poured 17,957 ounces of gold at its Paulsens mine in Western Australia in the second quarter of 2010-11, when the processing plant was offline for a month.

That compares with 30,602 ounces of gold poured in the September quarter of 2010-11.

Sales in the three months to December 31, 2010, were 18,587 ounces, generating revenue of $25 million, compared with $40.5 million in the previous quarter.

Northern Star said the shut-downs would have minimal impact over the medium term, as it processed ore stockpiled during the quarter.

In December, production was halted by a state-wide shortage of liquid oxygen, which led to the Paulsens plant going offline for more than a fortnight.

"This happened when the stoping grades were around 15g/t, so Northern Star took the prudent decision to stand-down the processing plant until a delivery of liquid oxygen was received rather than allow gold and revenue to be lost," Northern said in a statement.